Greater Than a 75th Birthday

By COLlive reporter
Photos by Itzik Roytman

Guests of the 18th Aleph Society dinner in New York City this past Monday were invited to celebrate the upcoming 75th birthday of Rabbi Adin Even-Israel Steinsaltz.

But there was another occasion highlighted around the tables of the Morgan Library and Museum – literally.

In front of the 300 seats in the elegant hall on Madison Avenue was a copy of the Steinsaltz Koren English Talmud, the new groundbreaking edition of the monumental and acclaimed project.

Available both in print and soon as an iPad app, the projected 41-volume edition will be completed within 7 years, in keeping with the traditional Daf Yomi cycle.

Participants got to view the traditional Vilna page and Steinsaltz’s contemporary English translation presented with a multitude of learning aids (color photographs, maps and charts) to help both the beginning and advanced Gemara student.

With philanthropist Gorge Rohr and other New York figures in the crowd, the dinner honored the teacher, mystic, scientist, social critic and Chabad chossid hailed by Time magazine as a “once-in-a-millennium scholar.”

Even the cream-covered cake did not reference the birthday, instead featuring a photograph of the initial volumes of the Koren Talmud with a red pomegranate on its cover.

As for Rabbi Even-Israel himself, he led a dialogue with Deborah Lipstadt, an American historian, Emory University Professor and author of the books “Denying the Holocaust” and “The Eichmann Trial”.

Their deep and thought-provoking discussion was a testament to the elder rabbi’s international status as one of the greatest rabbis of this century and of the last.

Following the event, Rabbi Even-Israel gave a shiur to a select group of students of Colombia University, organized by Shliach Rabbi Yonah Blum.

He’ll be back in the U.S. next week to deliver an academic lecture at Chabad’s Living Legacy conference in Washington, DC, exploring the underpinnings of the Rebbe’s works and teachings.